


Tell Me I'm A Screwed Up Mess

by MsAndrogyny



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Roses, bridges
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 05:12:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10429896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsAndrogyny/pseuds/MsAndrogyny
Summary: It was just a normal day until it wasn't.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song We Felt The Fall by Lemolo

It was a normal day. It wasn’t warm out; it wasn’t cold. There was a soft breeze blowing and people were out and about. Doing their grocery shopping. Buying gifts. Having lunch or going back to work. Smiling, talking, laughing, yelling.

Gerard had been on his way to the art store to get some supplies when he’d stopped to look at the roses that were on display at the local flower shop. He didn’t know what had made him stop. The roses weren’t particularly beautiful, but they weren’t ugly either. They were just normal roses on display at a normal flower shop on a normal day. And still they were calling out to him.

He had no reason to buy one. There wasn’t anybody in his life he could give a rose to, no grave he could adorn with the flower and he would never buy roses for himself.

To be perfectly honest, he didn’t like roses. To him they weren’t special like they seemed to be to everyone else. He didn’t like their shape, didn’t particularly like their color and didn’t like their smell. To Gerard, they didn’t hold the meaning of love. He didn’t even enjoy the combination of the soft flower with the sharp thorns like everyone else did.

Or, well, he assumed everyone did. That seemed to be the general opinion anyway. Roses were beautiful. Roses smelled great. Roses were the flower of love. Roses were fascinating because they were both soft and sharp.

Gerard reached out and touched one of the roses with his fingertips. He had no reason to buy one and yet he did.

**

Frank leaned against the railing of the bridge and looked down at the water. It was probably freezing cold and the bridge he was standing on had to be at least a hundred and fifty feet high. It would be so easy.

He let his fingertips run over the cold metal of the railing.

So easy to climb over and jump. He would probably die on impact. Wouldn’t even have to feel the cold sting of the water. It could all be over if he just climbed over the railing and jumped.

Frank wasn’t actually suicidal, though. He just had this morbid interest in death and everything related to it. Where others saw beginnings, he saw endings. Where others saw light, he saw darkness. Where others saw sunrises, he saw sunsets. Where others saw life, he saw death.

He’d never told anyone that he did. They’d think he was depressed, which he wasn’t. It was just a matter of perspective. Because where others saw the beauty in beginnings, light, sunrises and life, he saw the beauty in their opposites. To him endings and darkness and sunsets and death weren’t ugly and depressing at all. They were beautiful.

“I wouldn’t do it if I were you.”

Frank looked up at the sound of a voice and found a guy standing next to him. He was slightly taller than Frank, had black hair, wore a paint-splattered hoodie and equally paint-splattered jeans and he was holding a single rose.

“Wouldn’t do what?” Frank couldn’t help but ask as he watched the guy lean over the railing a little to look at the water.

“Jump.” The guy said. Frank looked at him a moment longer before looking down at the water again.

“I wasn’t going to.” He said.

“You looked like you were.”

“I was thinking about it.” Frank admitted.

“Why?”

Frank didn’t answer the question.

“I would tell you all the things that are worth staying alive for, but the fact is that I don’t know you and I’ve got no clue if you still have something worth living for.” The guy told him while still leaning over the railing a little.

“I’ve got plenty of things worth living for.”

“Then what are you doing standing on a bridge while considering jumping?”

“I never said I was considering it. Just that I was thinking about it.”

The guy hummed and pushed away from the railing, drawing Frank’s attention. He looked up to find the guy holding out the rose to him.

“Take it.” The guy said.

“Why?” Frank asked him.

“Just do.”

Frank eyed him a moment longer before accepting the rose.

“Now it’s yours.” The guy said and Frank frowned.

“In case you were lying about having something to live for, now you actually do.” The guy continued. “Because that rose is now yours and you’re obligated to take care of it until it dies.”

Frank blinked –- not sure how to respond to that. The guy shot him a smile before leaning against the railing and looking down at the water again.

Frank looked between the guy and the rose a few times before asking, “Wasn’t this rose meant to be for anyone else?”

“No.”

“Cause I wouldn’t feel right taking it if it was.”

“It’s not.”

There was a silence as both of them looked down at the water and Frank felt the need to break it –- clear something up.

“I’m not suicidal, you know.” He said and the guy turned his head to look at him.

“Then why are you standing on a bridge thinking about jumping?” The guy asked and Frank looked at him for a moment.

“Because in order to truly appreciate life, sometimes you’ve got to think about how easy it is to die.” Frank said honestly and the guy seemed to think it over.

“Fair enough.” He said and looked back at the water.

“What? That’s it?” Frank asked surprised. “No follow-up questions?”

“Nah, I get it.” The guy said and Frank looked at him a moment longer before looking at the rose again.

“I don’t need the rose. Don’t you want it back?”

“No. I don’t like roses.”

Frank frowned again. “Then why were you holding one?”

“I don’t know.” The guy told him. Frank studied the black hair, the paint-splattered clothes and the way the guy was leaning against the railing.

“You’re weird.” Frank said.

“I know.” The guy said as Frank looked back down at the freezing cold water.

“I’m weird too.” He admitted.

“That’s okay. I like weird.” The guy told him and Frank couldn’t stop the smile.

“Me too.” He said and suddenly felt perfectly at ease standing side-by-side with the weird stranger, looking down at the cold water while thinking about how easy it would be to just jump and end it all.


End file.
